Space isn’t the final frontier—it’s time. Millions of American suffer from “time poverty” as vacations shrink, schedules grow more packed and workdays lengthen. We work nine full weeks more per year than Europeans. Time poverty even affects our children: they have lost 12 hours per week in free time since the late 1970s.

We can take back our time, however, starting with simple, individual actions. These steps open up time for life, whether we’re craving more time with our families or a few hours to contribute to our communities or listen to our deepest longings.

You don’t need to wait until Take Back Your Time Day on October 24 to get started, says John DeGraaf, national coordinator of Take Back Your Time and co-author of Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic. Here are are a few ideas from Take Back Your Time that you can try right now.

1. Cancel something.

2. Cut out one activity from your child’s schedule.

3. Unplug from telemarketers using www.donotcall.gov.

4. Cut out junk mail—find out how at www.junkbusters.com.

5. Go for a long walk.

6. Learn to meditate. Practice for 10 minutes a day and slowly increase the time to 30 minutes.

7. Ask for a sabbatical.

8. Consider a job share and ask for it if you want it.

9. Start a brown bag lunch discussion group about taking back your time in your workplace, school or college.

10. Learn more about Take Back Your Time Day, the Time to Care public policy agenda, and great resources at Take Back Your Time. For more inspiration, listen to "Time is Not Money: Waking from the Workaholic American Dream," a Bioneers conference workshop by John DeGraaf and Vicki Robins.